Once again we struck out in the truck (only going to be about 60 – a bit chilly for the Beemer.) South on 101, detouring on Humboldt Hill – a farming loop which provided wonderful view of the Humboldt Bay, the 2nd largest Bay in CA (2nd to San Fran.)
Stopped in Scotia, California’s only remaining “company town.” The Pacific Lumber Company employs about 1600 people. At the town museum a plaque tells the story, and a great train and equipment is parked there—a relic of the “good ole days”.
The Pacific Lumber Company – this picture only shows a very small portion of the lumberyard with piles and stacks over several acres. The mill itself was probably a half-mile long. Huge!
Then onto Avenue of the Giants, 33 stretch of road which parallels and crosses Rt 101 through one of the state’s largest redwood forests. Reaching heights of 300’ and more, some have been growing since the days of ancient Rome!
Avenue of the Giants winds in and out of private property. Ran across one man’s dream. Guess he was a UPS Driver before retiring?
About a third of the way through Avenue of the Giants, Jerry decided to take off on one of his famous “scenic routes,” which are notorious and always interesting. Well this one turned out to be about 50 miles and 3-1/2 hours long – Old Dyersville Road. Making a huge loop east from Rte 101, it traverses mostly mountains…from 140’ up to 3357’. Much of the time the road was one-lane gravel, but a few stretches of a mile or two were asphalt two lane. Much of it was through redwood and hardwood forests but miles were up on the ridgeline of a mountain. Picture below. Cattle were grazing up here and once in a while we would see a home, but for the most part, it was just us. Saw one or two others on the road…luckily not on the one-lane part! LOL
Beautiful country, but we were glad to finally land in Garberville where we had yummy ice cream cones to hold us over. Back north to Avenue of the Giants to finish the 20 miles or so that we missed by taking the scenic route. Two different places, where the Avenue follows the a meandering Eel River, there were “flood of ‘68” poles with the marking probably 30’ above our heads…and we were already probably 50’ above the current river level with was very low with just a small stream and lots of gravel bed showing. Egads! Reading in a brochure, it said two small towns were totally wiped out with the flood! I’m surprised with that high of water, that more wasn’t wiped out!
About 6 pm we arrived at the historic bridge, Fernbridge 1910, which leads from Rte 101 to Ferndale, a small historic town near the ocean.
And then 6 miles to Ferndale. Found the Ivanhoe Hotel which has survived 3 or 4 fires. They had live entertainment (an older folk’s band and a couple of singers). We had a beer at the small bar and listened to the music. Then shared a delicious salad with fresh-caught bay shrimp. A delicious repast!
This is another Victorian building housing the most westerly bar. Certainly a very interesting day.
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